Favre on Rodgers: what took so long to get a Super Bowl?

Read here from usatoday.com. I don’t dispute the fact that the Packers are talented and that even when Favre was here, there was quality young talent that was likely to develop nicely. But Favre is just jealous here. Yes Rodgers had talent on offense and defense last year, but Rodgers was very much the key behind the whole Super Bowl run. He is a big reason a lot of those (offensive) players have developed so well. Rodgers has made guys like Jordy Nelson and James Jones better WRs than they likely would be elsewhere.

I don’t want to take anything away from the fact that Favre likely did teach Rodgers (consciously or not) some about how to play the game. I believe this is true to some extent. But I think Favre overstates his mentoring role here while overplaying the team’s talent and diminishing Rodgers’ massive talent. The fact is, most football experts right now would take Rodgers over just about any QB in the NFL – he’s that good. And Rodgers would make any team in this league (perhaps except for NE and maybe New Orleans) better than they are now if he were their starter. He’s that good and the fact that Favre appears to be trying to diminish just how good Rodgers is, is lame.

I have not listened to the interview, just read the excerpts, without (until now) seeing the USA Today commentary which teases out what he did or did not mean by this. But my initial reaction was that this was some kind of an indirect slap at Rodgers. I guess you might even call it passive-aggressive. “Yeah, the team he inherited was so good that you would have thought they would win the Super Bowl in 2008 or 2009.” My wife, always more of a Favre supporter, thought I was just looking for something negative to hold against Favre. But the more I think about it, I really can’t read it in any way other than an indirect put-down.

Favre’s broadcasting debut described as a flop as posted in Pro Football Talk today by Mike Florio.

On Saturday, former NFL quarterback Brett Favre embarked on a career that most have assumed he will eventually do on a full-time basis during football season: Talk about football on TV.
But according to an account of Brett’s performance as an analyst for the game between Southern Miss and Rice, Favre at least for now doesn’t have the chops to do the job.
Graham Watson of Yahoo! Sports’ Dr. Saturday blog writes that Favre flopped. Based on the introductory portion of the broadcast posted by Watson, Favre’s performance wasn’t horrible. But it wasn’t great, either, and it was a little disconcerting to hear a guy who was at ease under the toughest of on-field circumstances openly describe himself as nervous.
Brett could get better if he commits to preparing and working and learning how to resist the temptation to keep talking and talking and talking. And talking. The question is whether he’ll become quickly frustrated by something that clearly doesn’t come as easily and naturally as throwing a football.
Plus, at some point he’ll have to wear a tie, and it could be hard to find one that goes just right with his flip-flops.

It is a very tough question. One can only imagine Favre sitting in front of his TV last February watching that Superbowl. His season had just imploded on about every level imaginable. He lost twice to the Packers. His image and personal life were in a shambles. He was no longer the down to earth sports hero but the butt of about every joke. And to top it all off Ted Thompson and Aaron Rodgers are winning the freaking Superbowl. Now this guy is asking me about how I felt about all that?

That being said, he could have taken the high road. “Yeah, it was a disappointing season for me for a lot of reasons but I was really happy for Aaron and the Packers. I have a lot of friends on that team I’m glad they got to feel the joy of winning it all.” But he didn’t take the high road because he is a narcissistic jerk who is more worried about how Rodger’s success effects his legacy then moving on or mending a relationship with Packer nation. He took the low road and gave Rodgers a back-handed compliment. Sure Aaron is good but with that much talent around him, “I’m really kind of surprised it took him so long.” He choose to try and diminish Rodgers instead of mend fences. Still a jerk.

I agree with Dave that this is most likely Farve simply yapping without the ability to understand that he sounds like an ass. He is not smart enough to have thought about what he said before his mouth opened.

I really just wish he would shut up for like five years. As it stands right now, I hope the Packers ignore Farve (no number retirement, no public events with him) until the Rodgers era is over.

Favre isn’t Machiavellian, but he is a bit of a narcissist and he seems incapable of the grace called for in this situation. Farve didn’t say aything that was false, per se, but the tone seems to be unnecessarily dismissive of those personal attributes of Rodgers which are such a big part of this team’s success.

Favre basically dared the Pack to move on to Rodgers and then did everything he could to get to the Vikings and embarass them for doing it. I believe his comments about the talent of the team are geniune, but his “surprise” that it took “so long” for Rodgers to win the SB is just poorly disguised jealousy.

Fact is, Favre took the measure of TT and MM when he played the retirement game once too many times, and he was dead wrong about those two men. Then he upped the anty by going to Minn.

When GB won the SB, Favre not only lost the gamble, he had his entire world view refuted. TT does know what he is doing. The Pack can thrive without him. The fans will love the next QB as much as they loved him. To see Rodgers take that team, his team, to the SB is just too much for him, a guy who had grown convinced of his own indispensibility.

The odd thing in this is the implicit vindication of TT. There were many whispers (I find them credible) when favre left that his lack of faith in TT was a big part of it. Now he is giving TT credit just to avoid giving too much to Rodgers.

Well said RayMidge. Agreed. I too wondered about the backhanded compliment of TT (and MM) for bringing in and developing tons of talent. Not sure he thought this through.

I also just listened to the actual interview and in my opinion, it sounds much worse than just reading it. It seemed very clear to me that he’s worried his legacy in GB is threatened by Rodgers – and this makes him defensive. This is just petty.

Although I’m not sure Favre has it in him, I’d sure like to see him somehow set things straight with the Packers so they could possibly retire his jersey or something to celebrate his induction into the HOF. I was extremely disappointed with the way things ended up but you can’e deny he was the face of the Packers during the 90’s.